The Arab League on Saturday suspended Syria until
President Bashar al-Assad implements an Arab deal to end violence
against protesters, and called for sanctions and transition talks with
the opposition.
A statement, read by Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani,
said the League decided "to suspend Syrian delegations' activities in
Arab League meetings" if it continued to stall the Arab plan and to
implement "economic and political sanctions against the Syrian
government."

It also called for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus, but left the decision to each Arab state.

Sheikh Hamad said at a press conference the decision would take effect on November 16.

The statement warned that Arab League Secretary General Nabil
al-Arabi would contact international organisations concerned with human
rights, "including the United Nations," if the bloodshed continued.

It called for a meeting in Cairo with Syrian opposition groups in
three days to "agree a unified vision for the coming transitional period
in Syria."

A week of deadly violence in city of Homs had overshadowed the
meeting, in which Arab ministers appeared divided on what measure to
take but eventually voted by majority on the final statement.

Assad's regime agreed on November 2 to an Arab roadmap which called
for the release of detainees, the withdrawal of the army from urban
areas and free movement for observers and the media, as well as
negotiations with the opposition.

Instead, human rights groups say, the regime has intensified its
crackdown on dissent, especially in flashpoint Homs, killing at least
125 people in the city since signing onto the League's deal.

"Homs is a microcosm of the Syrian government's brutality," said
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, which
accused the regime of crimes against humanity based on its systematic
abuses against civilians.

Human Rights Watch, like protesters and Syrian opposition leaders,
urged the Arab League to suspend Syria's membership of the pan-Arab bloc
as punishment for its brutal eight-month crackdown on dissent.

At least 23 people were killed in violence in Syria on Friday alone,
most of them civilians in Homs, which an opposition group declared a
"humanitarian disaster area" earlier this week.

Syrian security forces carried out new raids and arrests in the Homs
neighbourhoods of Al-Sebaa, Bab al-Dareeb and Baba Amro on Saturday and
gunfire was reported in the morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights reported.

With Nato ruling out operations and UN Security Council sanctions
unlikely because veto-wielding permanent members Russia and China are
allies of Assad's regime, regional actors have come to represent the
best avenue to pressure Damascus.

Damascus says it has moved forward on the deal by releasing 500
prisoners and its envoy to the Arab League expressed on Friday his
government's willingness to receive a pan-Arab delegation.

"This will help assess Damascus's commitment to the (Arab) plan and
to unveil motives behind certain external and internal parties working
for the failure of the Arab blueprint," the official SANA news agency
quoted Ahmed as saying.

Despite the Assad regime's prevarication, the United States insists
its days are numbered and says that even Arab leaders are encouraging
him to step down quickly.

"Some Arab leaders already have begun to offer Assad safe haven in an
effort to encourage him to leave peaceably and quickly," said Assistant
Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman.

"Almost all the Arab leaders say the same thing -- Assad's rule is
coming to an end. Change in Syria is now inevitable," Feltman told
members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a hearing.

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